Less than half a season after demanding a trade out of Nashville, forward Martin Erat has asked for another trade, this time from the Washington Capitals.
A report surfaced out of the Czech Republic about Erat venting his frustration with washington and asking for a trade. He didn't shy away from it on Monday, telling the Washington media the same thing. He wants out and fast.
With that, surely the general managers across the league are lining up (*sarcasm font off). That's now twice in the span of seven months that Erat has requested a trade and in that time his value hasn't exactly gone up. If the requests weren't concern enough, his production has been down (although he notes that his playing time has been a major culprit) while his salary remains pretty high at $4.5 million.
In other words, good luck to Caps GM George McPhee in getting a good return value for Erat, especially now that teams know he wants out, further reducing McPhee's leverage in theory. The Caps might have to eat salary to give Erat what he wants.
This seems like a good time to remind you that the Capitals surrendered top young prospect Filip Forsberg to the Preds for Erat and Michael Latta, who bounces between the NHL and AHL. It was hard to like that trade from the start for the Caps. Now? Well, let's just say you can't win 'em all.